TV VIEW

TV VIEW; 'ON WINGS OF EAGLES' PLODS TO SUPERFICIAL HEIGHTS

By John J. O'Connor

Published: May 18, 1986

The timing, it seems, couldn't be better. The five-hour production of ''On Wings of Eagles'' is just the sort of ''we're not going to be pushed around anymore'' adventure story that, in light of the enthusiastic polls following the recent raid on Libya, many Americans should relish. Beginning tonight at 8 on NBC and continuing tomorrow evening at 9, the two-part mini-series recounts the true story of how H. Ross Perot, the Texas industrialist, went about rescuing two of his top executives from imprisonment in Iran in 1979. Bucking the newly victorious Ayatollah Khomeini and assorted namby-pamby officials in the Carter Administration, Mr. Perot simply recruited a tough former Army colonel who, with a special team of Perot employees, led a secret mission to get the job done quickly and efficiently. The result is a kind of Rambo in a three-piece business suit.

The teleplay by Sam Rolfe is based on a book by Ken Follett, a Welshman who specializes in covert-action thrillers (''Eye of the Needle,'' ''The Key to Rebecca''). On the whole, the TV adaptation sticks close to the factual scenario traced by Mr. Follett. As the collapse of the Shah's regime begins to appear inevitable in December of 1968, Electronic Data Systems (E.D.S.) decides to evacuate its employees and their families. But two executives -Paul Chiapparone (played by Louis Giambalvo) and Bill Gaylord (Jim Metzler) - are detained for questioning by a clearly hostile magistrate named Dadgar (Parviz Sayad). Completely puzzled as to the charges against them, they are thrown into jail and bail is set at the staggering sum of $13 million.

Learning about the situation at his vacation home in Vail, Colo., Mr. Perot vows that ''whatever it takes, whoever it takes, I'll get them out.'' He is soon turning for help to Arthur ''Bull'' Simons, the retired colonel with a reputation for taking on dangerous assignments. In case there be any doubt about who the heroes of this piece are supposed to be, Mr. Perot is played by Richard Crenna and Colonel Simons by Burt Lancaster, with the kind of square-jawed integrity that these capable actors can summon up at the flick of a makeup stick.

In fact, Mr. Perot's commando operation was impressive. It demanded skill and bravery, and in the end it got the job done, lingering on in the public imagination as a rebuke to the later disastrous attempt by the Carter Administration to get American hostages out of Iran. But television, in its never-ending crusade to simplify complicated issues, takes an interesting feat and reduces it to good guys/bad guys mush - easy to swallow, perhaps, but impossible to digest.

There is, of course, little or no effort made to be anything more than superficial. On the one hand, we have these sincere-looking American businessmen and their worried families; on the other, those dark-skinned foreigners, just about all of whom have to be distrusted on principle. The two E.D.S. executives seem to be thrown into prison for no reason at all, but even Mr. Follett's book makes clear that the company was handling huge amounts of money and, in a land notorious for ''deals,'' suspicions of bribery were not completely unreasonable, especially when E.D.S. had to do business with Iranians with already shady backgrounds.

And then the whole question of why the Shah was overthrown is simply avoided. The opposition is depicted as nothing more than a gang of street rowdies who, when not destroying automobiles, are partial to self-flagellation. The Shah's hated secret-police organization, Savak, is actually reduced to a joke that ensnares an enemy of the commandos.

But hold on. Television is also interested in attracting certain kinds of audiences, especially of the young-consumer variety, the kind of women who are perhaps taken with pretty faces and the kind of men who enjoy the brashness of, say, ''Miami Vice's'' Crockett and Tubbs. ''On Wings of Eagles'' does happen to have such a character and, dropping the stereotypes momentarily, he is an Iranian, albeit of the Stepin Fetchit variety. Rashid, played by Esai Morales, is a young man who adores his American employers and dreams of living in the United States one day. The Brooklyn-born Mr. Morales, previously seen in the film ''Bad Boys,'' has the kind of personality and energy that just about jump off the screen, and the producer, Lynn Raynor, has obviously noticed. As the story progresses, Rashid spends an increasing amount of time on camera and becomes so instrumental in the rescue operation that the rest of the characters begin fading into insignificance. Mr. Perot ends up sharing his hero's mantle with an irrepressible Iranian.

Meanwhile, directed ploddingly by Andrew V. McLaglen, the television version of the rescue operation is interrupted periodically for glimpses of worried wives, who are drawn so broadly that their hysterics border on being ludicrous. At the same time, their husbands are presented as perfect corporate types: aggressive, loyal and still fond of a good game of poker with ''the boys.'' They are the eagles of the title. Mr. Perot is fond of saying that ''eagles don't flock, you have to find them one at a time.''

As the industrialist, Mr. Crenna projects gutsy sincerity without even attempting a Texas drawl. Mr. Lancaster is more restrained as the enigmatic Bull Simons, the kind of leader who can maintain total control without raising his voice. Mr. Follett tells how, when Mr. Perot threw a party in the 1970's for returning Vietnam POW's, John Wayne shook Colonel Simons's hand with tears in his eyes and said, ''You are the man I play in the movies.'' Mr. Lancaster has got the type down pat. In 1962, Mr. Perot launched what would become E.D.S. on an investment of $1,000. He sold the company to General Motors in 1984, and his current personal fortune is estimated at $2 billion. He still likes to think of himself as an ''irritant'' who, by persistence, gets things done. But even he, apparently, is unable to get television entertainment to shuck some of its more irritating habits.